1820 in rail transport

none 1819 1820 1821 1820 Events May 1 – The Kington Tramway, a horse-worked plateway, is opened from Eardisley to Kington, Herefordshire, England. Together with the Hay Railway it forms a continuous system 36 miles (45 km) in length, the longest in the United Kingdom at this date.Gordon Rattenbury Cook, Ray The Hay and Kington Railways Gwernymynydd Railway and Canal Historical Society 1996 0-901461-19-9 October - John Birkinshaw of Bedlington Ironworks patents improvements in the production of wrought iron rails. Thomas Gray publishes his first of five editions of Observations on a General Iron Railway, a book that accelerates the British debate on this means of transportation and promotes the concept of a national rail network. An early form of monorail in Russia is operated by Ivan Elmanov in Myachkovo, Moscow Oblast. Births January births January 21 – Egide Walschaerts, Belgian inventor of a steam locomotive valve gear (d. 1901).John Marshall John Marshall (railway historian) Biographical Dictionary of Railway Engineers 2nd Oxford Railway and Canal Historical Society 2003 0-901461-22-9 April births April 8 - John Taylor Johnston, president of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, 1848–1877 (d. 1893). May births May 2 - Robert Gerwig, German civil engineer, designer of Schwarzwald Railway and the Hell Valley Railway (d. 1885).https://steamindex.com/people/contengr.htm#gerwig Continental engineers 30 March 2024 Gerwig, Robert 7 June 2018 steamindex.com July births July 31 – John W. Garrett, president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from 1858 (d. 1884).http://www.bookrags.com/biography/john-work-garrett/ Biography of John Work Garrett 2005-03-02 https://web.archive.org/web/20050208200709/http://www.bookrags.com/biography/john-work-garrett/ 8 February 2005 August births August 6 – Donald Smith, afterwards Lord Strathcona, Scottish financier, promoter of the Canadian Pacific Railway (d. 1914). September births September 20 – Alfred Belpaire, Belgian inventor of the Belpaire firebox used on steam locomotives (d. 1893). December births December 21 – William H. Osborn, president of Illinois Central Railroad 1855–1865, president of Chicago, St. Louis and New Orleans Railroad 1875–1882, is born (d. 1894). Unknown death dates James Beatty, Irish engineer who was involved in building the European and North American Railway and the Grand Crimean Central Railway (d. 1856) References White John H Jr. Spring 1986 America's Most Noteworthy Railroaders Railroad History 154 9–15